Review: Hogwarts Legacy is not magical
Yes, all of you. I I don’t even smoke and I feel like I need a cigarette before I start this business. We are here to talk about Hogwarts legacy, and for this we need to discuss this whole mess. Pull up a chair, pour yourself some tea, wrap yourself in a blanket, scream into a pillow (or into the abyss) because it will take both of us a lot. (Or get heavy.)
Hogwarts legacy is a third-person role-playing game set in the same universe as the classic Harry Potter series of children’s books. If you need a refresher, these books, the Wizarding World setting, and the Harry Potter film franchise are intellectual property and the brainchild of author JK Rowling. This is important because she has always been inseparable from her work and the work she inspired (and licensed), for the better, and now mostly for the worse. Nothing with the stamp of the Wizarding World can be considered outside the context of the fact that it is the product of Dame JK Rowling, CH, OBE.
On the pages of her books, she made the ordinary seem extraordinary. She created a place where strange, lonely children were told they were special, where child abuse survivors were more than just broken. However, as of 2019, the once-favorite children’s writer is… well, she had some opinions. About people like me. AND should we exist. She even went as far as suggest that we are inherently dangerousa threat to real (ay) women everywhere.
When I was a kid, every word J.K. Rowling wrote brought magic to my world, but now every word of hers just breaks my heart. Every homophobic or transphobic thing that queer children hear as children becomes a voice that haunts them for a long time. We hear relatives, friends and parents say terrible things about us and about us. Many of us struggle with these voices every day. When one of these voices comes from the author who taught you to accept yourself, the person you thought really saw you and kids like youIt hurts so much that I sincerely hope she never understands. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I don’t hate her. To be honest, if I did, it would be easier. Somewhere inside me lives a child who still loves her no matter what. This girl has a lot of experience in loving the people who hurt her. She never asks why; she just wants to know what she did wrong and how she can fix it. It’s hard to tell her that there’s nothing to fix. And that there are places where we can’t go back. Places like Hogwarts.
Unforgivable Curses
I remember when the first book came out. The lanky boy on the cover. School Book Fair. At the time, it was just another chapter on the shelves next to the likes of Bunnicula and Goosebumps. I’ll be honest. For me, this was not a situation from The Neverending Story. I did not open the cover and was not transported into the world of magic and secrets. I liked it, but that’s how it was. It was the third book Prisoner of Azkabanwho surrounded me with his world and attracted me.
It was the first thing that struck me as dangerous. Watching these characters I knew deal with adult-level danger made me feel noticed. In Harry, I saw a reflection of my difficult childhood. I shared his disillusionment with the adult world and the tight knot of anger he couldn’t understand seething in his chest. In Ron, I knew what it was like to go to school in the trash, worry about money in a way no kid should ever have, and I also knew what it was like to be laughed at for being a redhead. In Hermione, I saw my relentless and often annoyingly assertive sense of right and wrong, and how that often got her and me into trouble. After Prisoner of AzkabanI was in deep.
I avoided the press Hogwarts legacy when it was first announced. I didn’t want to see the gameplay, I didn’t want to admire the trailers. I avoided them like the plague, because I was afraid that there would be controversy, that I would see a game that reflected the magic of books, and my heart would jump out of my chest. I was afraid to see the luxurious visuals of movies recreated on modern gaming hardware, realized in 4K and full HDR. I was afraid that I would have to tell my 12 year old me that she couldn’t play and explain why. So when i got the code for Hogwarts legacyI got ready.
When home is no longer home
I thought I’d spend a lot of time nitpicking this section. Going through every grudge I have about how this game differs from the source material, how outdated it looks and feels, and how each character just feels like an animatronic Chuck-E-Cheese robot waiting for you to come in and put down a quarter. , so that he can say one line of dialogue and draw a dark, jerky image of a living being. But there are no nits, it’s just lice all over.
The longer I spent in this version of Hogwarts, the more I felt a palpable absence. Definitely something is missing. I thought maybe it was the lackluster art direction, the one-dimensional characters that seem like store-bought versions of those we know and love, or even the conspicuous absence of John Williams’ iconic soundtrack. But there is an even greater absence here.